PC Club Enpower Sabre Extreme: E6600 Made Easy
by Jarred Walton on August 29, 2006 4:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Standard Application Benchmarks
We'll start with a look at typical application performance. Results from 3DMark05/06, PCMark05, AutoGK with DivX 6.2.5, and Cinebench 9.5 were collected. Given that we are comparing different configurations, the results should not be taken as an apples to apples comparison but rather as performance offered at various price points.
We consider 3DMark to be more of a synthetic benchmark, though it is widely used a measure of system gaming performance. Even at roughly equivalent clock speeds (overclocked Sabre Extreme versus stock clock speed Ultimate X9), it is not at all surprising to see the ABS X9 CrossFire outperform the PC Club configuration. When we get to the actual gaming tests, we will see what level of performance is really offered. The different graphics cards also have an impact on the PCMark05 results, though in practice all the tested configurations are sufficiently fast for just about any office related task.
In Cinebench and AutoGK performance, the impact of faster CPU speeds is clearly apparent for tasks like video encoding and 3D rendering. If you don't ever do video or 3D rendering or other similar work, a faster CPU may not be terribly important. On the other hand, if you're constantly running CPU limited tasks, spending money on a faster CPU (or overclocking) can definitely help out.
AutoGK often benefits from additional memory performance, which can be seen by comparing the 3.0 GHz PC Club results against the 2.93 GHz ABS results. In DivX, the 2.5% increase in clock speed is negated by the better memory timings and bandwidth of the ABS system. Xvid doesn't seem to benefit as much from tighter memory timings or increased bandwidth, as the 2.1% performance advantage the PC Club OC holds over the ABS almost matches the clock speed difference. With DivX encode rates almost doubling that of Xvid for the chosen task, it does makes sense that the DivX encode could use more memory bandwidth. Better memory is also important for improved overclocking, especially if you want to use a cheaper CPU with a lower multiplier. As we showed in our revised look at the ASUS P5B Deluxe, the E6400 required RAM capable of at least DDR2-890 operation to reach our maximum overclocks while the E6300 required RAM that could run at DDR2-1050.
We'll start with a look at typical application performance. Results from 3DMark05/06, PCMark05, AutoGK with DivX 6.2.5, and Cinebench 9.5 were collected. Given that we are comparing different configurations, the results should not be taken as an apples to apples comparison but rather as performance offered at various price points.
We consider 3DMark to be more of a synthetic benchmark, though it is widely used a measure of system gaming performance. Even at roughly equivalent clock speeds (overclocked Sabre Extreme versus stock clock speed Ultimate X9), it is not at all surprising to see the ABS X9 CrossFire outperform the PC Club configuration. When we get to the actual gaming tests, we will see what level of performance is really offered. The different graphics cards also have an impact on the PCMark05 results, though in practice all the tested configurations are sufficiently fast for just about any office related task.
In Cinebench and AutoGK performance, the impact of faster CPU speeds is clearly apparent for tasks like video encoding and 3D rendering. If you don't ever do video or 3D rendering or other similar work, a faster CPU may not be terribly important. On the other hand, if you're constantly running CPU limited tasks, spending money on a faster CPU (or overclocking) can definitely help out.
AutoGK often benefits from additional memory performance, which can be seen by comparing the 3.0 GHz PC Club results against the 2.93 GHz ABS results. In DivX, the 2.5% increase in clock speed is negated by the better memory timings and bandwidth of the ABS system. Xvid doesn't seem to benefit as much from tighter memory timings or increased bandwidth, as the 2.1% performance advantage the PC Club OC holds over the ABS almost matches the clock speed difference. With DivX encode rates almost doubling that of Xvid for the chosen task, it does makes sense that the DivX encode could use more memory bandwidth. Better memory is also important for improved overclocking, especially if you want to use a cheaper CPU with a lower multiplier. As we showed in our revised look at the ASUS P5B Deluxe, the E6400 required RAM capable of at least DDR2-890 operation to reach our maximum overclocks while the E6300 required RAM that could run at DDR2-1050.
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koomo - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
Hi Jared,Any expectations for when the next mid-range buyer's guide will be posted? (Last one was May 9th, just prior to AM2 and Core 2 Duo).
It sure would be nice to see one juat after you all have tested the soon-to-be released ATI lineup. I'll be very interested to see how power requirements compare between the mid-range NVIDIA and ATI cards, as well as comparative noise levels (will the new ATI blowers help that much?) Thanks!
Very nice review, BTW.
Turin39789 - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
Get in in under $1000 and We'll talkKorruptioN - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
It appears that the three right side holes are not utilized in screwing the motherboard down to the tray? They instead run the optical drive IDE cable underneath.Also, the choice of using an ALLIED PSU is a bad one -- consider it bottom-end generic.
QueBert - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
I consider your statement to be generic. Allied does make a lot of entry level, very basic PSU's. But, they make some http://www.pcclub.com/product_details.cfm?itemno=A...">great ones.. Infact. the one I just linked to, replaced a Enermax that died in my system. Was very quiet, had plenty of power, and overall is a PSU I'd recommend to anyone looking. Allied makes a ton of different PSU's, some of they might very well be crap, I won't dispute. But the one I own, ran a system with 4 HD's, 2 Opticals, an X800, 2 120MM and 80MM fan and more then enough power left over. Powmax makes "bottom end PSU's" there's a HUGE difference between "bottom end" and "generic"A good # of the barebone cases PC-Club sell come with Allied, I build pc's for people for a living, and I've had very few problems, with even their lower end psu's *shrug*
Allied gets a bad rap, which I'm sure is for reasons that date back 5+ years? Based off that line of thinking, Maxtor makes the worst HD's ever...
yacoub - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
Good review, Jarred. Nice to see how a pre-built system can perform in a review that covers all the basics and even overclocking.Harkonnen - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
On the internals and construction page, third paragraph. PSU is typed as SPU."If you want to do more than that, you may find that you need to replace the default SPU with a beefier unit."
JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
I dunno - I kinda like the way SPU rolls off the tongue. :Dchunkychun - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
Is it really a great time to upgrade? It seems that directx 10 would require you to upgrade your graphics card realitively soon. Should people just wait?JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
DX10 may be important for games, but there's always something coming in the near future. I'm not aware of any games that are going to require DX10/WGF2 any time soon. I mean, we're only now getting a reasonable number of games that require SM3.0 (just in time for DX10, right?) At the ultra-high-end, it's probably worth waiting, but for mid-range a 7900 GT or X1900 XT level card is going to last quite a while at moderate detail settings.We need Vista before we'll get DX10, and I'm not holding my breath for an early 2007 Vista launch. I'm betting on closer to March. That's over six months away, so really I think now *is* a good time to upgrade... provided you haven't already done so in the past year or two. If you have a 6800/X800 GPU or better, you can probably wait. If you have an Athlon XP/Pentium 4 (prior to Prescott) or earlier CPU, upgrading to Core 2 wouldn't be a bad move. Maybe wait another month for prices to stabilize, but that's about it.
bamacre - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
Well said, JW.